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8 Realistic Track Plans For Small Switching Layouts provides easy to follow track plans for building small but fun model railroads that will fit in a typical spare room. Each plan is designed to be visually inspiring, easy to build, and fun to operate. Included are port railroads, modern era themes, and themes for the 1950's.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lance Mindheim is owner of The Shelf Layouts Company, a custom model railroad building and design firm. He speaks nationally at a variety of prototype modeling conferences and is author of numerous articles for the model railroad press. An engineering graduate of Purdue University, he is a strong believer in the value of simplicity when it comes to model railroad design. Visit his website at www.shelflayouts.com.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

As the guru of quality shelf layouts, Lance Mindheim gives us a glimpse at his talent for simplicity that follows prototype practices. While each of the eight track plans features a very different theme, they all emphasize realistic operational potential with plenty of room for scenery.

When space is limited, there is a great temptation to cram in as much track as possible. Most of these eight designs use 24 or 27-inch radius curves and just few Number 6 turnouts, a sure-fire formula for reliable low-maintenance operation. Every layout presents at least one form of staging or interchange with the outside world and the sidings snuggle up against industries that are actually large enough to require rail service.

All of the plans are point-to-point. There are no circles. The emphasis is on simple local freight service to specific customers without resorting to switching puzzles. Neither the Broadway Limited nor 100-car unit trains will grace these tracks. However, each plan has enough destinations to preclude serving them all in one trip, an attribute that leads to interesting operating sessions.

Considering the superiority of today's sound equipped locomotives that will reliably creep along at very slow speeds, realistic switching can be very engaging. To see the operating and scenic possibilities of a small shelf layout, search the Internet for a connection to "Lance Mindheim East Rail," Lance's own layout where he puts into practice what he preaches. Be sure to view the impressive photo gallery to see the opportunities inherent in small shelf layouts. I highly recommend this inspiring book to move you from your armchair.

This is a "cracking book"! It deals with around the walls realistic shelf layouts that fits in a 12'x 11' room. The plans are neat, simple, and, most important, prototypical.Each plan has photos of suggested industries, which is really helpful. If your'e in the planning stage of your layout and fancy about switching layouts, this is THE BOOK!

First: Lance Mindheim is great an he knows what he is talking about, but this book wa very disappointing.

He fills only about 50 pages and there are a lot of pages with no real content: too two very small prototype pictures on a whole page, the factbox on its own page and when he actually writes something he does so in a very big type. Most layouts are designed to take up 3 walls in a 11'x12' room, not actually what I would call a small layout.

Overall, I would expect that amount of content on a free hobby website but for a book you have to pay for it's too little.

Two of the main purposes behind a book such as this can be expressed in the catchphrase 'I and I'. In other words, information and inspiration. Lance Mindheim's book "8 Realistic Track Plans for Small Switching Layouts" provides plenty of both.

In brief, the eight trackplans detailed in this book are well-thought-out, practical and feasible, and offer considerable scope for having fun both in the construction and operating phases. It's been said that the first and last few hundred yards of a freight car's journey are the most interesting part, and that's what these layouts depict.

The restraint and balance shown by author Mindheim in his designs will result in a model railroad which is simpler and less expensive to build--and which can be completed in this lifetime. For instance, these plans don't incorporate much in the way of staging tracks. More staging can always be added by the modeler, of course, but the author believes that small layouts can operate perfectly well by staging cuts of cars rather than whole trains, thus saving a lot of complexity, expense and maintenance headaches.

The trackplans are all sized for a hypothetical 11-by-12-foot spare bedroom. Since I sit typing this review in a room which is a virtual clone of the space shown in the book, I suspect that many readers will be able to adapt these plans to existing rooms in their own homes.

Even these too much for your available space? There's a bonus plan entitled 'The Beginner', which would fit in the smallest studio apartment or dorm room. It looks like a blast, too.

"8 Realistic Track Plans for Small Switching Layouts" provides not only inspiration, as any good idea book should; once you're inspired, it will take you to the next step and get you started on an attainable and enjoyable model railroad project.

Lance Mindheim is known for both quality personal layouts in N scale and HO gauge, as well as custom building work for model railroaders who can't do it themselves. So it's no surprise that he has some definite ideas as to what works in a track plan and what doesn't.

This book presents 8 shelf layouts in a simple clear format with good track plans, estimates of HO track supplies needed, and some back ground photos for inspiration. The book is easy to read, and is well written.

My only compliant is that, once I got a feel for the plan from what is in the text and photos, I wanted to know more about each plan, and there wasn't any. So, you can' learn everything youmight want to about each prototype from the book.

That said, there's a lot here to get your mind going, as ther eis in Lance's other hobby writing. If you want or need to plan a shelf switiching type layout, this book is definitely a good starting place.

More About the Author

Lance Mindheim is owner of The Shelf Layouts Company, a custom model railroad building and design firm. He speaks nationally at a variety of prototype modeling conferences and is author of numerous articles for the model railroad press. An engineering graduate of Purdue University, he is a strong believer in the value of simplicity when it comes to model railroad design. Visit his website at www.shelflayouts.com.